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Thursday, March 08, 2012

1. What is the top option one would get if one entered the question “why” on the Youtube search box? WHAT: What makes you beautiful one direction; WHERE: Where dem girlz at official video; WHEN: Whenever wherever Shakira; HOW: How to kiss.

Why this kolaveri di

2. Over 300,000 extras were used to shoot this scene, the most for any film according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Name the movie and the city.

Gandhi (funeral scene); Delhi

3. In October 1963 at a particular ceremony Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said, “This _____ has been built with the unrelenting toil of man for the benefit of mankind and therefore is worthy of worship. May you call it a Temple or a Gurdwara or a Mosque, it inspires our admiration and reverence”. What was Nehru specifically referring to?

The Bhakra dam. The ceremony marked the dedication of the Bhakra–Nangal Project to the nation. This is the origin of the description of dams as “the temples of modern India”

4. This metallo-beta-lactamase-1 enzyme was first detected in a Klebsiella pneumoniae bacterial isolate from a Swedish patient of South Asian origin in 2008. It makes bacteria resistant to a broad range of beta-lactam antibiotics including carbapenems which are a mainstay for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. The discovery was reported in Lancet Infectious Diseases journal in 2010 by KK Kumaraswamy et al. What two-words in the name of this enzyme caused a furore in India?

New Delhi(New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1)

5. What international conflict began on March 20, 2003 and formally ended on December 15, 2011?

Iraq War

6. This prime mover in the Mahabharata has a real name of two words – the first relates to the fact that he is dark-skinned while the second word refers to his being born on an island between two streams of a river. By what name is he better known to us?

Vyasa (Krishna Dwaipayana)

7. Only two people have been recipients of both the Bharat Ratna and the Nishaan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian awards in India and Pakistan respectively. Name both of them.

Morarji Desai and Nelson Mandela

8 The Burj Khalifa has now returned the location of Earth's tallest freestanding structure to the Middle East after nearly 700 years. The region last held the honour till 1311 AD when the Lincoln Cathedral in England was completed. Which structure's record did the cathedral beat?

Pyramids (of Giza)

9. In2009 PM Gordon Brown of UK made this unusual apology, “Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for A____ T______ and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While T______ was dealt with under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to A_____'s work I am very proud to say: we're sorry, you deserved so much better.” Who was AT?

Alan Turing

10. Which characters are named Uys and Buys in Afrikaans, Tik and Tak in Arabic, Hernandez and Fernandez in Spanish, and Dupont and Dupond in the original French?

12*. AUDIO: (a) Name the group and (b) Which controversial 20th century literary classicpartly served as an inspiration and is also alluded to in this song?

Police / Lolita

13*. At around the same time another eminent architect, Le Corbusier was preparing the blueprint for a modern city, the German architect Otto Konigsberger had planned this city to be a well-planned city with wide roads and many gardens and parks. Which city?

Bhubaneshwar

14*. Eva married Adolph on April 29, 1945 at around 00.30 hours. For a short while she became the First Lady of the Third Reich till she and her husband ended their lives the next day at around 13:30 hours. Till then who played the role of First Lady when Hitler was unmarried?

Madga Goebbels

15*. "Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out." This understated but ominous description of the ending of the world appears in which award-winning science fiction short story?

The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C Clarke (Hugo Award for Best Short Story, 1954)

16*. In 1958 USA proved successful with its rocket science and launched the Explorer-1 satellite on the Jupiter-C rocket designed in part by Wernher von Braun. The satellite carried a radiation detector designed by a University of Iowa astronomer. While in orbit it detected swathes of charged particles around the earth that were discovered to contribute to the swirling lights of the polar auroras. Who was the astronomer who designed this detector?

James Van Allen who detected the eponymous Van Allen radiation belts

17*. This Google Doodle appeared on 1/8/2011 celebrating what has been dubbed as the world’s greatest show on earth, and Africa's greatest natural spectacle. What is this?

Wildebeeste migration.The great migration takes place between the open plains of the Serengeti and the Maasai Mara, where thousands of wildebeest migrate to greener pastures as the seasons change and the circle of life continues.

18*. What tropically growing plant was the main export to Europe in 1763 from Louisiana and was the main cash crop of that colony? Worm infestations at the end of the 18th century caused repeated crop failures and by 1800, planters turned to sugar, cotton, and tobacco.

Indigo. After slaves, indigo was the main export from Africa to the New World in the 18th century.

19*. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the Longest mountain chain on earth (at 40 thousand kilometers). It is located along the middle of the Atlantic. Which country is the only part of this chain that is above water.

Iceland. The Andes form the longest exposed mountain range at 7,000 kilometers

20*. VIDEO: What catchy phrase was used to publicize this unusual match of 2007?

Battle of the Surfaces

21. Which common prefix seen in Indian restaurant menus, usually applied to describe mildly-flavored, rich, creamy gravies that may also contain nuts and dried fruits, refers to the fact they were originally designed for royal consumption?

Shahi

22. In 2005, there were calls to delete word “X” from our national anthem and substitute it with the word “Y”. The argument was that “X” was no longer a part of India after 1947. Opponents of this proposal held that “X” referred to a geographical feature and to a community's culture and that this community is an integral part of India's cultural fabric. The Supreme Court of India declined to change the national anthem and the wording remains unchanged. ID “X”and “Y”.

Sindh / Kashmir

23. In classical education the four difficult subjects were arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. The three relatively simple subjects were - logic, grammar and rhetoric. What were these three together called? (Clue: One quizzy word)

Trivia (or trivium)

24. Which 16th century Vaishnava saint and social reformer wassometimes referred to by the names Gaura (Sanskrit for golden one) due to his light skin complexion, and Nimai due to his being born underneath a Neem tree?

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

25. The non-profit organisation “X” opened a petition proclaiming that a popular website “Y” "is a masterpiece of human creative genius and is also of universal human value". If successful, “Y” would become the first digital entry on a prestigious UNESCO roster of international cultural and natural wonders that includes Giant's Causeway, Stonehenge and Westminster Abbey. ID X and Y.

Wikimedia and Wikipedia

26. This city is associated with motorsport and gave its name to a unique type of race start where racers lined up across the street from their cars and ran across the street and jumped into their cars, get in, start the engines, reverse and begin the race, all without any assistance. This mad scramble in the beginning of each race became an iconic aspect of this race, which, however, was later discarded. Name this city.

Le Mans. The race is called The 24 Hours of Le Mans

27. White, Black, Javan and Sumatran are four of five currently existing species of what animal; and can you name the fifth type?

Rhinoceros, Indian

28.The U.N. estimates that 50 percent of the world's living standards are influenced by ________, which create sustainable ways to increase the standard of living for entire populations without over-exploiting natural resources. Therefore in autumn last year, just as global population reached 7 billion people, The UN declared 2012 as the International Year of the _____?

Cooperatives

29. The blackbuck, Indian gazelle and the wild ass which are fast vanishing in other regions of India are present in large numbers in the Thar Desert. The numbers are attributed to adaptation – they are smaller than similar animals elsewhere and they are nocturnal. What specific human interventionhas contributed to their healthy population?

Bishnoi community

30. Starting his career at number 11, this player was part of the world record test partnership for the last wicket;. He later went on to open the batting and broke the record for the test opening partnership. He also set two records which will never get broken. Who was he?

Wilfred Rhodes. He took 4204 first class wickets and played his first test aged 21 and his last one aged 52 - the longest career ending as the oldest ever test player.

31. Walter Elias Disney started Disney Bros. with his brother Roy. What two personal changes did he do to appear more like a studio boss?

He shortened his name to Walt, and grew a moustache. His original family name was D”Isney – they immigrated from Kilkenny, Ireland.

32. In order to contain China’s ambitions in the South China Sea, the US is planning to increase its military presence in which Asian country?

Phillipines

33. This word first appeared in 1948 in a paper titled A Mathematical Theory of Communication by C.E. Shannon in Bell Systems Technical Journal. (This paper is one of the seminal works of modern information theory). The relevant sentence is, “The choice of a logarithmic base corresponds to the choice of a unit for measuring information. If the base 2 is used the resulting units may be called ________s, or more briefly ___s, a word suggested by J. W. Tukey.” Fill in the two blanks (the first blank represents two words)

Binary Digits / Bits

34. This hair style was originally sported by the Yale University rowing team in the 1890s and was later adopted by the US armed forces during World War II, and became a civilian fashion for men throughout the 1950s. What is its name that reflects its origin?

Crew Cut (after the rowing crew)

35. VISUAL: Name this actor

Andrew Garfield (as Spiderman)

36. VISUAL: What is this celebration held on 14th July commonly called in the English-speaking world? (two-words)

Bastille Day

37. VIDEO (Senorita): Which actor is making his debut as a singer in this song?

Abhay Deol

38. AUDIO: ID the artist and the original composer of this classic.

Jeff Beck / Puccini (Best Pop Instrumental Performance Grammy 2011)

39. VIDEO: Where was this shot (Kun faya kun from Rockstar)?

Nizamuddin Dargah

40. VIDEO (Arsenic and Old Lace): What two-word term describes this kind ofdelayed reaction to an unusual remark or circumstance, often used as a comic device in movies ?

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My name is Yagnyesh , and I am an IT professional who occasionally quizzes.
This blog was started in 2006 , during my onsite trip when I wanted to keep in touch with quizzing and to experiment with blogging tools. The blog has been a labor of love sometimes but most times its been fun tweaking the things.
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